Saturday, November 22, 2014

A Mapuche minor of the community Mallekoche in the Malleko province, Araucania region, was brutally assaulted by police after being arrested during a protest inside an estate against against a company affecting Mapuche ceremonial grounds.

This was denounced in a statement by that community which describes what happened on Tuesday, November 18, when three of its members went to the estate El Fiscal to require the company Serviterra to stop "the serious damage and irreversible degradation" to an ancient Mapuche cemetery and the Malleko river.

The delegation was formed by the Werken Mirko Collio, alongside Fabiola Llanca and the minor Juan Huentecol, fourteen years old.

According to the statement, after reaching the estate, the Mapuche were intercepted by 25 police officers who assaulted them in an uncontrolled manner.

According to the community, the agents beat with special cruelty the minor Juan Huentecol, who was knocked unconscious, after cutting with knives his traditional and ceremonial Mapuche clothing.

Also, they state that the Mapuche woman involved, Fabiola Llanca, suffered a beating despite being pregnant.

The Mapuche community condemned the incident and described the Chilean police as "being anti-Mapuche in the service of the companies" for their "racist and discriminatory" performance.

They also state that they will begin legal actions against the institution.

Finally, the community indicated that it will fight harder to defend their ceremonial spaces in El Fiscal and called other Mapuche communities not to lower "the just territorial recovery processes".

The estate El Fiscal, of 230 acres, is part of the area that they claim in their land claim process.

Read the statement below:

Public statement by Mapuche Community Mallekoche

To the national and international public opinion and our Mapuche Nation. The Mapuche Community Mallekoche issues the following public statement:

Kiñe: In the context of the territorial claim by our Mapuche Community Mallekoche on the estate El Fiscal, where part of our historical and cultural heritage is found, on Tuesday, November 18, 2014; our Mapuche community represented by Werken Mirko Collio together with two members of our Mapuche Community; Fabiola Llanca and minor Juan Huentecol, entered to ask to paralyze the serious damage and irreversible degradation to our cultural heritage that the company Serviterra continues to cause to our Eltuwe (ancient Mapuche cemetery), and the disproportionate environmental damage to the Malleko river.

Epu: Upon arrival they were stopped and arrested by about 25 Special Forces police officers, who with a cruelty a dictatorship worthy, surrounded them giving them a series of blows with their feet and hands, wearing gauntlets, to then get dragged by their hair into the mud existing at the site, as well as receiving death threats. These police officers savaged the minor of 14 years, and destroyed with knives his Mapuche traditional ceremonial attire (MAKUÑ: Poncho) and also left him unconscious with the beating they gave him.

Küla: We strongly condemn the actions of torture, the racist and discriminatory performance with which the Special Forces police officers execute arrest procedures against the Mapuche, attacking the physical and psychological well-being of our people. Which is why we publicly denounce the Chilean Police institution as an anti-Mapuche entity, in the service of the companies, forestries and large landowners. Also we will initiate legal action against this police institution.

Melí: Our Mapuche Community will not be intimidated by this uncontrolled Special Forces police proceeding, we will continue more strongly defending our cultural and ceremonial spaces on the estate El Fiscal, land used by our ancestors to practice our ceremonies.

Kechú: We call on the Mapuche Communities in resistance not lower the just processes of land recovery and the defense of our cultural and spiritual spaces.

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About Me

Maricheweu International ("10 times we shall overcome") unites people whose main goal it is to support the human rights of the Mapuche (people of the earth).
The Mapuche are an indigenous people of South America. Their ancestral lands are occupied by Chile and Argentina. Currently there live more than 1,5 million Mapuche in Chile and about 50,000 in Argentina.
The ongoing systematic destruction of indigenous peoples in South America is an indisputable fact, and apparently an international political strategy.
In Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Peru, Chile and elsewhere the human rights of indigenous peoples are flouted over and over again.
While there is progress on legal issues, as there are made judgments, decrees, laws and international treaties for the protection, conservation and respect for Indigenous Peoples, all this does not seem to suffice.
The treatment of the Mapuche provides an example of this. Their history, their culture and their struggles are not mentioned by the mainstream media, neither nationally nor internationally.
Meanwhile, they are continuously attacked by the Chilean and Argentinian governments, falsely accused of terrorism and relentlessly persecuted.